Embedded Files
West Hill Park School at Polzeath in 1941
This fascinating photograph, sent in by a friend of my daughter's who happens to be a Maths teacher at West Hill Park School, takes us back a remarkable 83 years to 1941. It captures West Hill Park School (founded in 1920) at the Atlantic House Hotel in Polzeath, where they had evacuated during World War II from Titchfield, Fareham, Hampshire.
Just as well as in 1941 two land mines exploded in their strawberry fields, destroying the barn, cattle barn and glasshouses.
While war raged across Europe, for many children, Polzeath offered a very different experience – one that could even be described as a "happy war." Though the beaches were mostly closed off with barbed wire strung from The Rum Bar to Polzeath House, and the ominous "Dragon's Teeth" lined Baby Bay and Polzeath to deter tanks, the wide-open spaces and freedom from everyday routines must have been a welcome change for these young evacuees.
Imagine, for a moment, being a schoolboy with the vast expanse of Polzeath and Pentire at your disposal! The sand dunes around Rock and Daymer Bay may have been mined, but one can't help but think the freedom of the beaches and the endless possibilities for exploration would have been an exciting adventure.
The details of their schooling during this time remain unclear. We know from previous articles that children from Daymer Bay joined West Park School for lessons, presumably held within the Atlantic House Hotel itself.
Do you have any memories or information about this time period? Perhaps a relative attended West Hill Park School during this evacuation?
Send your comments to wnbartlett@gmail.com to help piece together this remarkable chapter in West Hill Park School's history.
Perhaps a few boys in this photo are still alive although they would be well over 90 years old now. Do you have any stories about any of them? Reading the school website history https://www.westhillpark.com/our-school/our-history I now realise that I taught with a former headmaster of the school! Mike Elmitt was made headmaster in 1985 and became the bursar at the newly formed Harrow International School in Bangkok in the 1990's where I was teaching and one of the new schools very first Heads of Departments!
The 40 boys and 10 staff at WEST HILL PARK SCHOOL, ATLANTIC HOUSE POLZEATH - JULY 1941.
The School evacuated from Hampshire in 1939 and didn't return until 1945.
Standing:
W R McConnel
SH Gurney
Oakshott
DHM. Bell
DMD. Thomas (Nigel Thomas whose parents lived in Trebetherick at White Horses?)
McKenzie
MH. Brewer
Wayte
TER Kitson
Sitting on the wall:
R.F. Chalmers Jefreys
RM. Mays-Smith
D. Brewer
AC. Curry
SEF Snow
J. Brewer
EAA. Bruell
MM. Keane
Mrs Pamela Ransome
Miss Ewans
PL. Sugden
Wilde l
Wilde II
G.N. Bibby
JD. Benton
WFP. Currie
G.D.B. Fraser
Miss Pile
Mr De Brie
Seated:
Mr EDF Cardam
Miss Cooper
HW Drax
PR. Tahouridis
WJM. Faulkner
Mr CH. Ransome
(Charles Ransome became owner of the West Hill Park building in 1919, set up a school there in 1920 and then ran the school until his son, Jimmy, became headmaster on his death in 1952)
GB. Cross
Mrs Ransome
C.G.C. Spencer
Mr Bates
Mr S.A. Armstrong
May-Smith II.
A Kennedy
PCE Bury
D. Chatwn
RP. Fremantle
HDY Faulkner
Holland
D. Longfield
S. Deverell
J. De C. Hughes
White Horses (four houses from the right) was built in 1938 by Lewis Brown, who purchased the land from Ernest Betjemann, the father of the Poet Laureate. Ernest Betjemann stipulated that all new houses built on his land should cost no less than £2,500 to maintain quality
The house was built for Lynam Thomas, who was a master at Rugby School and he lived there with his family, including his wife Peggy and their two sons, even after the outbreak of World War II.
During the war, Lynam Thomas kept a rifle and ammunition at the house for local defense which was said to have the only rifle within ten miles... but that seems an exageration.
Barbed wire was placed along the clifftop from Polzeath to Daymer, and scaffolding poles served as anti-tank defenses on the beaches.
Nigel Thomas, Lynam's son, attended school at the evacuated West Hill in the Atlantic House Hotel in Polzeath and presumably because of all the barbed wire etc he was driven each day to school in New Polzeath. Today he would surely have walked!
Similar to Ralph Barlow of Stepper, Lynam Thomas brought boys from his house at Rugby School to help with the harvest in 1942 and 1943. They stayed in tents near White Horses and worked on local farms.
"Beaks' Bay"
Due to the number of schoolmasters who owned houses in the area, including Lynam Thomas of White Horses and Ralph Barlow of Stepper, Trebetherick became known as Beaks’ Row, Beaks’ Bay, or Beaks’ Point. The Thomas family owned White Horses until the late 1960s with Michael and Jenny Regan buying the house in 1968. Jenny Regan had family connections to the area, as her father was stationed in the RAF at St Merryn during the war and admired Peggy Thomas's vegetable garden on the cliff-top where it is a particular gardening challenge to grow anything!
Year 8 students from West Park School in 2024 outside the Atlantic Bar and the Polzeath Beach House Hotel. The original building was knocked down to create the new one.
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